Trying to keep up with the Occupy Wall Street movement out here is like my motorbiking around the pot-holed filled roads of Kupang: you can try as hard as you can but you’re just not going fast enough. And I’ve been trying…relentlessly, because 1) of my perpetual FOMO and 2) I want to be holding the hands of those friends who are out there in New York, DC, Miami and more. But every attempt has resulted in me slamming my computer screen shut and frustratingly asking myself why I am here in Kupang. When #GlobalChange day rolled around on October 15th, I even toyed with the idea of booking a flight to join OccupyJakarta for a good five minutes, before realizing that I didn’t have the funds for that kind of mobilization. Fortunate for my broke ass, and not my accurate foresight, OccupyJakarta did not happen. Nobody showed. It didn’t make a single headline that I had checked.
Meanwhile in Kupang the next day, I arrived at an entrepreneurship workshop that my friend Aline had invited me to. There I met a small group of young entrepreneurs in the city. The workshop series was there to help them write a business plan and attract micro-financing investments for their respective businesses. Some of the projects included a self-wash laundromat, a bakery, a wedding gifts shop, and finally my personal favorite, a ‘trash’ arts and crafts shop.
At the end of the workshop, we sat in a small circle to debrief and chit chat. One of the guys, Immanuel, turned to me and asked, “Why are they striking in America?”
Caught off guard, I responded: “Well, I’m not really sure what all of the reasons are. I guess… they are angry about inequality and irresponsibility.”
His blanked face stared through me, making me even more flustered about how to approach this conversation.
I tried again, “What do you think they would be protesting about?”
“I don’t know.”
I couldn’t find a good way to better explain the OWS movement, especially with my hazy understanding of the events and the General Assembly’s demands in the first place. Instead, we slowly shifted the conversation into why there was no OccupyJakarta. As explained to me, a history of military violence against peaceful protesters in Indonesia has left a big portion of the population fearful and traumatized. I pushed no further. For me, the language of protesting I was used to using from my college days was too western-centric for us to continue this conversation. Rather, we talked a little bit more about Indonesian history, something I was ashamed that I didn’t know more about, and how differences in Indonesian, American and French education have shaped different attitudes towards ‘activism’ amongst young people in each respective country. Shortly after, we ended our debrief to go home.
The rest of the night, I thought about the privileges that come along with occupying anything. I came to the realization that my solidarity with #OWS does not necessarily mean taking it to the streets out here or anywhere. #OWS had inspired a small group of us in Kupang to engage with each other and the world in ways I had never thought it would. And in moments like these, it’s more than solidarity with loved ones at home. It’s finding new potential loved ones here in a new home.
There’s nothing like a good debrief. My heart is simultaneously in Kupang, Jakarta, New York, DC, Miami.. and everywhere where you’re reading this. Peace.
